An aerial view of Wuzhizhou Island in Sanya, Hainan. [Photo/VCG]

Hainan province is located at the southernmost tip of China. It is bordered to the north by the Qiongzhou Strait, separating it from Guangdong province, and faces Vietnam across the Beibu Gulf to the west. To the east and south, it neighbors the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia across the South China Sea.

The administrative region of Hainan province includes Hainan Island, the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands, along with their surrounding waters. It is the largest province in China by total area. Hainan Island itself resembles an oval-shaped pear, with its long axis stretching from northeast to southwest for about 290 kilometers and a width of approximately 180 km from northwest to southeast. The island covers an area of 33,900 square kilometers, making it China's second-largest island, second only to Taiwan. The coastline of Hainan spans 1,910 km and features 68 bays and harbors of various sizes.

At its closest point, Hainan Island lies only about 10 nautical miles from the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong, forming a vital maritime corridor between the island and the mainland, as well as a key shipping route connecting the Beibu Gulf and the South China Sea. The distance from Haikou, in northern Hainan, to Haiphong, Vietnam, is about 220 nautical miles, while the voyage from Sanya Port in southern Hainan to Manila Port in the Philippines is approximately 650 nautical miles.